Monday, May 11, 2009

community gardening

saturday cemented in my mind what i already felt - that i am called to do/participate in a community garden. we woke up, picked up my friend michelle, and drove down to olde towne east. we got lost because somehow either the wrong address had been communicated to me or i had written it down wrong - thankfully we and our friend beth all made it there against the odds. we weeded beds, and i was illuminated to the use of new (to me) tool called a "wood action hoe" (which has an unsavory ring to is, no?)



i know what im asking for for christmas! i brought the kids, explaining beforehand where we were going, what we were doing, and what the community garden was. this one in particular was through the franklin county courts system that was, i gathered a popular outlet for youth to work off their community service hours. it was nice to chat with other garden advocates and oddly enough i was talking to a guy about our churches probable community garden plans and it turns out he went to my church! though to second service, which i am a first service attendee so we had never met. beth brought two of her children too and a woman kept them pretty occupied with planting, water, dirt digging while we did some more serious gardening. did i mention this place was GORGEOUS? it was amazing to see such a beautiful thing amongst condemned homes and the like.

after we left there, beth, michelle, and i drove over to our prospective land on 16th to scope it out. so far david and i were the only ones who had been there out of our group and i was anxious for others feelings on the subject after seeing the plot. as soon as we got there a man comes out of his house across the street and starts talking to us. we explained who we were and what we might do on the land and he was so excited, even offered to help us out and be a neighborhood watchman of sorts. he said he was opening up his house to a friend, who was very freshly into recovery from addiction and that his friend was looking for a positive outlet to put some of his energies. it was just like God had made this meeting happen, seriously. we will certainly be taking him up on that offer. now if only the city land office would return my FOUR messages we'd be up and running! needless to say recent days have been a whirlwind of conversation, emails, home/neighborhood visits, phone calls, etc on the subject. we're not even having a brainstorm, we're having a brain-tsunami.

the whole day saturday was just filled with an energy and inertia about the whole subject. now i do not want to be swept up in emotion but really, i feel this is where God has laid out his plans for me/us.

david rode 200 miles on his bike this weekend in TOSRV. he came home sunday and promptly went to bed by 8, totally exhausted.

today i think things are starting to catch up with me, all that im taking on. im feeling tired, stressed, unsupported out on a limb, and anxious. of course right as i burst into tears on the playground talking to my friend jamie olive runs up exclaiming that she has to poop. i mean it's funny now but it was really harshing on the moment when it happened. i have had several days in the past few weeks where i cant remember if i ate anything until dinner time - not good. no wonder my pants are feeling a little slack. and please, spare me the "you're skinny/can't afford to lose weight" comment. i know, i'm not doing this on purpose i'm just juggling a lot and get busy and stressed.

can i go to bed for like a week?

5 comments:

meridith said...

where in OTE was the garden? we never saw it when we lived in the apt from hades. :) that is super cool though.

i am so excited for you! just reading about how badly you wanted that land and how FAST God has opened all these doors. it's just so exciting!! i know it's got to be tough to handle it all. hang in there! we are rooting for you!

Olive said...

yeah it's not right near you guys. well where you guys were. it's on fulton and champion.

effie said...

"wood action hoe", hehe!

don't they always have to poop at the most opportune times? it's amazing!!

Doom For Darlings said...

I's exciting to hear about this new project! I'm sure it's all a bit overwhelming right now, but hang in there. You've got a good thing!

Saw this and thought I would share:
http://✿.ws/citychickens

Sarah C. said...

that hoe is awesome. well worth the money!
-Sarah in Dayton